Entertainment

For AAPI Month, here are some of my recommendations for movies to watch now that summer’s here!

Diya Sebastian

Keira's Reads, Recommendations, and Reviews

Keira McDonough, EIC

Y'all, it's the final issue, so here are the books I read this semester, the books I recommend, and the hastily-written reviews of books I read during exams and didn't really have time to coherently think about. 

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach: 4/5 

I LOVED this book, especially as a fan of baseball. The dynamics between the characters were wonderful and engaging and overall, I was delighted. Unfortunately, the gay couple in the book perpetuates really harmful stereotypes. Owen was a true caricature of homosexuality (social justice warrior, overly fashionable, clean freak, etc), and the the (only) mlm relationship was potrayed as true love and not the creepy and predatory dynamic that it definitely was, considering the forty-year age gap between the characters as well as the power dynamic. As far as I can tell, the author is not gay, and the Affenlight/Owen subplot is not only boring, but harmful. BUT ASIDE FROM THAT! I LOVED IT! It characterizes healthy male friendships without sexualizing it or bro-ing it up too much. It was real, it was raw, and their personalities, conversations, motivations, and arcs are so painfully true to life. I recommend this book for sure, especially for baseball fans!

How Lucky by Will Leitch: 3.5/5

I enjoyed this book! It was a fun, light read, with refreshingly hilarious narration and natural pop culture references that didn’t make me cringe (which is a rarity). Daniel is a well-rounded main character with completely random sidekicks that came together in such a funny way. I love love loved his relentless optimism; too many books about disabled people are depressing as heck, especially when written by abled people. While I don’t use a wheelchair nor do I have SMA, I noticed Leitch based Daniel’s SMA off of a real-life case, which I appreciated very much. I don’t like how the author assigned the novel a set year, because in my opinion that dates the book. Setting it in an approximate time period allows it a bit more longevity. I also could have done without long, rambling monologues at the end, and maybe a wee bit less action, but otherwise, it was a cute and lighthearted story.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: 5/5

Honest to god, this may be one of the best books I’ve ever read. I liked Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Evelyn Hugo, but it was by no means my favorite, so I had similar expectations for this book. Nope. Knocked ‘em all out of the park. The dynamic between the characters. The development. The nuance. AHH. Reid has such a gift for creating realistic people that have terrible habits and characteristics, but still getting you to root for and relate to them. While Reid’s style is very formulaic, this novel stayed captivating and wonderfully true to life. There are far too many books that romanticize romance, if you can go as far as to say that, and I love that Reid keeps it real.

Under The Magnolias by T.I. Lowe: 4.5/5

Listen. I’m a picky 5-star reader. But this book was wonderful. Okay, some of the characters were two-dimensional, and sometimes the narrator went on rambly monologues at the end, but otherwise it was really good! There was nothing technically that stood out, but the story was memorable and packed with some of my all-time favorite tropes. EXCEPT: the epilogue. EPILOGUES ALWAYS RUIN GOOD BOOKS. The epilogue was completely unnecessary and ruined the integrity of the ending. I also don’t like how suddenly the ending was sprung upon, but at the same time I loved how it was chunks of time and not all seven years laid out. I genuinely enjoyed this book, but that might be because of how much I loved the characters.

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin: 4.5/5

I can’t believe more people aren’t talking about this book!!! While a tad melodramatic at times, that was the only complaint I could find about it. The unlikely friendships were so *chef’s kiss*. A seventeen-year-old girl whose best friends are a nurse, an elderly priest, and an 83-year-old woman. It’s such a wonderful and heartwarming story about unexpected friendships and the bonds that we form with others. Although it’s sad, as one could expect from a story about terminally ill teenagers, it made me happy as well as devastated, but in the best way possible. I honest to god don’t understand how more people aren’t obsessed with this book. I just wish there were more scenes with Lenni and Margot in the present day!

Normal People by Sally Rooney: 5/5

Holy crap, I’m obsessed with this book. I know a lot of people don’t like it, but it was so PAINFULLY realistic that I couldn’t not like it. Even without quotation marks, it flowed really naturally. The prose wasn’t anything spectacular, but it wasn’t about the prose. I really recommend this book; it was a quick read with so much depth.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd: 4.5/5

I just. Wow. The ending REALLY caught me off guard. I liked it a lot —it flowed well, had nice prose, and had great characters and development. Very mysterious. I feel like I can't say a ton about this book because so much of my experience reading it was based solely in my indescribable reactions as I read.

Recs:

Disclaimers: I haven't read all these books! These recs are based on vibes and what I've heard. Also I know I recommended a couple repeats but forgive me my brain is fried from the end of the semester. Also, romance books are labeled with either YA for young adult (14-18) or NA for new adult (16-30), which may contain graphic content. Please choose a book appropriate for you.

If you're looking for something light to read on the beach: Beach Read by Emily Henry (NA), People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry (NA), Book Lovers by Emily Henry (NA), Normal People by Sally Rooney, How Lucky by Will Leitch

If you're looking to flex on your English teacher next year: Time Is A Mother by Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (always impresses them!), The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri

If you're looking to be pretentious and claim you liked the book before the movie came out: Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (NA), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

If you want to get into reading classics but don't know where to start: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Pride and Prejudice (or any Jane Austen book), Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

If you want some non-fiction: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

If you want something that requires a bit of emotional investment but not any beyond when the book is closed: The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach, The Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

If you want to keep up with my reads and reviews over the summer, you can follow me on Goodreads (@keiramicks) or on Avery’s and my joint bookstagram, @babygotbookss. Have a literary summer, folks!

Deconstructing the “Good Girl” Trope

Sarah Cochi

The good girl. Think Lara Jean Covey from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Daphne Bridgerton from Bridgerton, Betty Cooper from Archie Comics, and Sarah Cameron from Outer Banks. She’s innocent, and probably enjoys baking, reading, and/or volunteering at a pet shelter in her free time. These positive characteristics are so often drowned out by her other more negative traits, though. She is sheltered, innocent, and, in the eyes of many critics, boring. 

On a basic level, the good girl is an pure and moral girl from suburbia with little experience romantically, sexually, and in life overall. She dresses in pale pink and pastels and longs to live life to the fullest. Thinking of any characters yet? 

The origins of the trope date back to the beginning of film television with the classic 1950s housewife. A perfect example is Barbara Billingsley from Leave it to Beaver, a TV sitcom airing from 1958–1963. Barbara was a loving and smart mother who cared for her family in a feminine and graceful way, filling all the duties of the classic housewife.  It was from this idea of the perfect housewife that the good girl was created: a female character easily digestible to audiences of all genders, who didn’t cause any scandals or break any rules. This trope set the standard for female characters on television and in much of our modern media.

In more modern years, the basic code of the good girl hasn’t changed much. She’s still the happy-go-lucky girl next door, and she is still criticized. A quick Twitter search can bring up countless examples of Lara Jean, Betty Cooper, and other “good girl” characters being called “boring”. Why do we think they’re so boring when they’re often the main characters of their respective films and series? Surprise! It’s rooted in misogyny. Any female character is almost guaranteed to be subjected to extreme internet critiques in which she is picked apart and criticized to a greater extent than male characters. She’s always too loud, too quiet, or has no opinions. She's fat or she’s too skinny. She’s boring or she’s annoying. This is evidenced by decades of scrutiny of real women in the spotlight. Taylor Swift has been fat shamed and told she was too skinny in the same article. Selena Gomez has been told she has no talent despite her having over 5 billion song streams and sold over 6 million albums. 

Female characters are separated into different groups based on whatever extreme they seem to fit into best, such as the “bad girls”, “mean girls”, and “good girls”. These tropes offer little except empty criticism to be applied to any girl who fits the trope. If she’s the “bad girl'' she's a s**t, the “mean girl” is a b**ch, and the “good girl” is boring and a prude. 

A common trope in modern media is the “bad boy x good girl” romance. In this romance, the good girl falls in love with the bad boy, and she brings out a softer side in him, while he teaches her how to break rules and escape the good girl side of herself—which was previously her defining character trait. This is exemplified to a T by Hardin and Tessa from After. One of the major changes/shifts (or some other word with a less positive connotation than “progressions” of the good girl in media, This trope promotes the idea that a woman needs a man to be interesting because she doesn’t have a personality on her own. 

As our society evolves, so does this trope, although the character still faces an extreme amount of criticism even after all this time. The majority of this criticism is unwarranted and given simply for the sake of being given. The trope is outdated, and doesn’t offer much depth to characters. Female stories deserve to be more than just the girl next door who likes the idea of falling in love. This trope is an unfortunate reminder of the past that needs to retire to the Hollywood vault.

Listening To A New Album Every Month: Pop

Samantha Smith

The Songs: 

“Music For A Sushi Restaurant”:

First off, I have to call out how the chorus sounds awfully similar to the Ant Farm theme from DIsney, which makes me wonder if they did in fact get the riff from the show. I love the loud bass in the beginning; it sets off a cool tone for the song. Now, aside from those little things, I want to talk about the song as a whole. I honestly am not a big fan of how the song sounds more like a sitcom theme than a Harry Styles song, especially the trumpets and a cappella voices during the chorus. I really am hoping the whole album isn’t like this song because I love Harry's usual style of music. While I like to commend artists changing up their style every once in a while, I don't especially like how Harry did it for this track.

“Late Night Talking”:

I'm getting some more of the Forever 21 store music here towards the middle of the song, but the beginning of it is cute and melodic. Based on the album cover, the track names, and the songs I’ve heard so far, I can tell this will be a more upbeat, dancy album than what Harry usually does. I like when he has a few songs like that on an album, but when they make up the entire album, it isn't my cup of tea.

“Grapejuice”:

I’m already liking the song twenty seconds in. I’m glad there's a change of pace from the prior tracks and it's giving me a more enjoyable melody. I’m a sucker for the radio voice effect singers use, and I love how Harry uses it throughout the song. This track isn’t anything special compared to a lot of my favorite songs that he's made, but I do like it much better than the first two songs I listened to. 

“As It Was”:

I heard bits of this song on Tiktok since it was released as a single at first, so I already had some opinions on the song. It's a great summer song. Though I’m not a huge fan of the little high pitched beats before each verse and chorus, I love pretty much everything else about the song. Scratch that—when the high-pitched beats come back towards the end of the song, I actually feel like I’ve grown to like it. Overall, this song has a catchy chorus, clever bridge, and beautifully-sung verses that set up the song very well. 

“Daylight”:

I'm getting some Khalid vibes off of this song, which helps it seem more summery. The distorted voice after the chorus ends doesn’t seem very Harry Styles to me, but I think it's a cool addition to the song and shows me that he’s trying new things with his music. I like the last third of the song a lot, more than the first two-thirds of it, and I really love the chorus that's basically just that cool guitar noise.

“Little Freak”:

I really have nothing to say about this song because I genuinely didn't want to listen all the 

way through. I found myself very bored, and wanted to skip forward to try and find an interesting part (but didn’t and waited it out). I ended up only liking the last little guitar riff that sounded a bit like “Blackbird” by the Beatles, which was nice to hear. 

“Matilda”:

I love love love the guitar at the beginning of this song because it gives me huge Nick Drake vibes. This is my favorite song so far because of the beautiful guitar melody Harry created. The lyrics are great and all, and Harry sounds the same as he always does, but the guitar just really stands out to me. There's a very cute little bridge towards the end that brings a good close to the track.

“Cinema”:

I have to say I am feeling pretty disappointed about this album and this song is only adding to the stack of similar-sounding slow tracks Harry has given us so far. I’m not getting any songs that stand out (besides "Matilda"). Harry’s prior albums have given me countless bangers and this album just wasn't so far. I am really hoping the next songs I listen to are not like this one, and make me want to add them to my playlist.  

“Daydreaming”:

The beginning has a cool upbeat vibe and continues the vibe of summer the album has been giving off. I love the chorus; it's definitely a lot more interesting than most of the ones I have been hearing from him and I actually wanted to hear the whole song. I genuinely enjoyed this song and was glad there were now more than two tracks on the album that I liked.

“Keep Driving”:

This is a good song—nothing too special, but it has a cute little melody and sync beat. It conveniently sounds like a great driving song (or beach song). “Should we just keep driving?” was a nice idea for a song, and a relaxing listen.

“Satellite”:

I didn't really enjoy this song. It's a nice melodic summer song I’d put in the background of something, but probably wouldn’t put on just to listen to it. I thought the chorus was a bit bland; in fact, the only part of the song that I really liked was the bridge.

“Boyfriends”:

My first thought was that this song sounded a little like Simon and Garfunkel and created a peaceful mindset with the beautiful guitar and vocals. I also noticed that the little ba-da ba-da da at the end of each verse is the exact riff from “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. This is a very beautiful song and I’m glad Harry added at least one song like this to the album.

“Love Of My Life”:

I love the beginning because it gets right in your face and starts out very powerful. The melody sounds like “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s, but overly so because it took me a second to really hear it. Harry’s voice sounds great in this, especially with the melismatic on certain words. The piano at the end is a great end to the song, as well as to the album.    

My Thoughts On The Album:

Considering that this was my first time ever listening to the album (unlike most of the albums I review), I noticed more things about the songs than I would have if I had already heard them—sometimes, the more you listen to a song, the more you like it, and many parts you would normally dislike brush right past you. I think I was so critical because of the high standards Harry has set for himself with his past two albums, which were packed with a lot of amazing songs, and I felt let down by many mediocre songs in this album. That aside,I can easily say I enjoyed the second half of the album much more than the first, and many of those songs had really grown on me by the time I finished all of my reviews. To finish off my last review of the year, I am happy to say that Harry has provided me with many new songs for my summer playlist.